SGirimont Photography Blog: The Stories Behind the Images

This is a cursed image. I can’t explain it any other way; it’s just cursed.

Back in November of 2003, there was a total lunar eclipse that I photographed to create this image. It is a composite of three separate images (I believe taken approximately 50 minutes apart), and merged to illustrate the size of the Earth’s shadow in relation to the moon. If you look closely, you’ll noticed the circular shape formed by the shadow on the images of the moon to the left and right. That’s the size of the Earth’s shadow. You can see how in the middle image, the moon was just inside the shadow. The red tint on the moon is caused by the sunlight shining around the earth’s atmosphere. If you were on the moon, it would look like the earth was surrounded by a ring of “sunset” colored light.

Anyway, why is this image cursed, you may ask? I sold a print of this image several years ago to a very nice woman who saw it and just had to have it. At that time, archival ink jet printing was still a very new technology and the way inks and papers behaved together weren’t as well understood as they are today. The first attempt at printing this image for her resulted in a print that suffered from a great amount of “out gassing” which would cause a problem when the image was framed; the glycols that were evaporating off the image would be trapped by the glass of the frame and cause a kind of ghost image to appear on the glass. We eventually got it taken care of, but it took a while to figure out the best solution. We know what causes this now, and how to prevent it, so it’s not a problem anymore.

Recently, the sister of the woman I sold the print to years ago decided that she’d like to have a copy for herself, so I printed it again.

When checking out the print prior to packing it up, I noticed that the paper had a flaw in it that meant I’d have to reprint the image.

For some reason, I decided that I needed to sign the second print before going to bed. Never sign a print like this when you’re tired; I signed it upside down. Off to print it a third time.

The third print was flawless and I checked multiple times before signing it, so I signed it right-side up. Given that the customer lives in Florida, I decided to roll it up so I could ship it out in a tube. Guess what? The paper I printed this on is very heavy, high quality stock that doesn’t, apparently, like to be rolled. Third print ruined. Back to printing it again.

Forth print was flawless, signed correctly and shipped out FLAT!!!

If you’d like a print of this image, you’re out of luck. Don’t think I’ll try again.

The number one reason why I like to shoot weddings is because I enjoy being around people who are having a good time. I especially like it when the parents of the Bride and Groom really approve of the person their son or daughter is marrying and decide to have a little fun with them during the speeches. Like the gentleman here.

This father of the bride told the crowd that he’d written down a few notes about the thoughts he wanted to share regarding his daughter and it would just take a few moments. He then proceeded to unfurl the many dozens of pages of type-written notes in his hand and began “Page One…”

The crowd had a good chuckle and I smiled at my luck because he turned right in my direction as he tossed out the paper giving me the chance to get this excellent image of him in action. He then chucked the paper and gave a very heart-warming speech using no notes whatsoever.

The reception for this wedding took place at Celebrations at the Reservoir; a beautiful location south of Richmond I highly recommend, especially in Spring when the trees and flowers are blooming.

In the winter of 2004-2005, Death Valley received over 6 inches of rain, causing landslides, road closings and the greatest springtime wildflower bloom in over 100 years. I was lucky enough to be in Las Vegas for a photography convention in March of 2005 when the reports of the wildflowers started to hit the news.

As soon as the conference was over, my family and I took our rental car on a bit of a road trip into Death Valley. We had intended to take just a short loop in and out of the valley, as we were traveling with our daughter who was not yet three at the time and we didn’t want to subject her to an all-day trip.

However, landslides due to the rain had washed out the road we were intending to take that would get us back to Vegas relatively quickly, so we were faced with going the long way through the valley or turning back. Since our daughter seemed to be enjoying herself, we decided to go for it.

I’m glad we did; the best of the wildflowers were on the part of the road we would not have seen otherwise. At one spot where we stopped, I spotted this wonderful bluish-purple flower shaded by a rock on one side and a shrub on the other. Sunlight was streaming in through the shrub, back-lighting the flower and giving it this wonderful glow.

After returning home, I researched the flower and discovered it has two names: The Desert Five Spot (for the 5 reddish-purple spots inside the plant) and the Chinese Lantern. Guess someone else noticed the fact that it glows when backlit!

I consider myself extremely fortunate to have been in the right place at the right time to see this amazing wildflower bloom. Even though they say it was a once-in-a-century event, I keep watching the news each winter for reports of heavy rains in the southwest. Maybe we’ll get lucky again!